Red Goshawk nesting observations

On 21st May I was lucky enough to observe a male Red Goshawk starting to
build a nest in the Lilyvale Rd area, between Musgrave and Lakefield
National Park, Cape York. This area is well-known for the nesting of this
species. The following observations were made over a two hour period
starting 7.30am. Only the male goshawk was present. Male goshawk was
nest-building solo. Bird did not vocalise during the two hours of
observation. Nest site is within a tall Darwin Stringybark, at least 30
metres tall, nest site about 5 metres from top. This was almost certainly
the first day of construction. Goshawk was observed to only collect sticks
from trees, not from the ground. Bird snapped sticks from trees, or
collected loose sticks caught within trees. Sticks generally collected from
within 100m of nesting site. There was a large variation in stick dimension,
length and complexity. At this early stage of construction, many sticks fell
from nest site after placement. At this early stage of construction, there
seemed to be little strategy in stick placement or fine-tuning of stick
position.

In my experience of observing half a dozen nests or more, the current
nesting site is a little unusual as nesting tree is not immediately beside
the road. Also very subjective, but nesting branch is a little less flat and
less open than I’ve observed previously.

Cheers

Murray Hunt